We arrived early, as usual, about eight am, after a long, slow ride through snow and freezing rain, and a middling breakfast at The Waffle House north of Baltimore.
The first thing we noticed on arrival was a maze of snow fences crisscrossing the lawns around the staging area and the Vietnam Memorial. As we moved around getting a feeling for the territory we passed a line going through a security checkpoint. As it turned out, this was the current entrance to the Vietnam Memorial. The line was occupied by men, all leather-jacketed biker types who challenged us as we walked by them yelling things like “You do not belong here” and “You can’t come in here.” I had not planned to go to the Vietnam Memorial but I had thought I would go look at the Roosevelt Memorial or perhaps the Lincoln Memorial. The way to either was blocked by snow fences and heavy security.
I learned later that there had been rumors circulating on some right wing web sites, specifically a site called gatheringofeagles.org, that the peace marchers were planning to defile the Vietnam Memorial, this because someone had spilt paint on the steps of Congress at the January rally. I don’t imagine any of the marchers had any such idea, the Vietnam Memorial being something utterly different from the steps of Congress, but by the look of things, DC officials were sufficiently alarmed by this turn of events to impose some heavy security around the area.
(If you go to the Gathering of Eagles site be sure to scroll down the and hit the link “about” under “sections” in the right hand column. )
It started the day on a depressing note.
The Gathering of Eagles, dressed in their black leather jackets, stood in a group at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. There was a barricade in front of them, a space about a lane deep in front of the barricade, and then another barricade behind which was the staging area for the march. Police, including mounted police on huge shiny well-muscled horses, stood watch between us. Our group found a spot at the front of the crowd and opposite The Gathering. They taunted and swore at us, while the march organizers encouraged the crowd with speeches and chants and lively anti-war music. We danced to stay warm. When the march got under way the Gathering of Eagles lined the street like watchers at a parade. Security was everywhere. They were hostile, mean, squinty eyed, hard faced, and scary. They yelled insults and shook their heads.The march over the Potomac was frigid. As icy winds came blowing up from that very, very wide river, we felt that we were on the longest bridge in the world. When we got to the other side I kept trying to look back to see how long the march was, it seemed to me that there were still marchers on the bridge as we approached the rally site, but it was hard to tell. We were very close to the front of the march and among the first to arrive at the rally where it was staged on the parking lot south of the Pentagon. The Pentagon itself, huge and unapproachable, served as a formidable and colorless backdrop to the stage. Out of all those many windows, I wondered, how did we look standing here?
We stood close to the stage, almost to the barricade, and were able to see and hear the speakers perfectly. We moved and swayed and marched in place to stay warm. Cindy Sheehan was there and spoke about how standing in front of the Pentagon was like being in the shadow of the Death Star. She spoke about the march against the Vietnam war forty years ago and how we were here again forty years later and how she didn’t want to be out here in the cold as a ninety year old woman marching against another war. Ramsey Clark, attorney general under Johnson and Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman from Georgia also spoke, among others.
(Democraynow.org has video of some speakers on their website.)
The demonstrators started wondering off at around four, an hour before the rally was slated to end. We were all frozen and the best of the speakers had spoken. Our group followed the crowd to the Arlington Cemetery Metro station. While we waited on line to purchase fare cards, which took about an hour, we nibbled on the cheese and crackers and pepperoni that I had brought with me. No one had eaten since our breakfast at The Waffle House. At the Pentagon City mall we thawed out and warmed up and recouped our resources with a burger and a beer before boarding the bus around seven pm and heading home.
As the bus pulled out of the city some riders used the bus’s mike to talk to us and reflect on the days experience. One talked about getting caught up in the snow fence maze with his young daughter and being abused by the Gathering of Eagles as they tried to negotiate the labyrinth and return to the demonstration. Among the vets on the bus one talked about the MIA POW flags that some members of the Gathering of Eagles were flying. How the POW MIA movement symbolized everything that had gone wrong for the Vietnam Vets and how strange it was to see these flags flying on the other side. As I listened I was struck by the irony of these vets supporting an administration that has been so negligent in regard to returning soldiers. I was also struck by how muted the reaction was on our side. The dominant emotion among us in regard to the Gathering of Eagles seemed to be a kind of sadness. I thought to myself that, at the end of the day, we must have outnumbered them fifty to one.
Peace,
Andrea
PS If you feel that you missed out on making donations to the Cape Cod Peace bus, never fear. We came up short and could still use your donations. Make checks out to:
John Bangert
5 Stage Coach Road
Harwich, MA 02645
No comments:
Post a Comment